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Timeline
THE AGE OF CHAOS: (Time undetermined) The Primordial Multiverse is all of existence. Time has no meaning and there are no laws of physics. This age ends as the unnamed overdeity defeats the eldritch pantheon and seals it outside of space and time as he begins to craft the ordered multiverse. GENESIS: (roughly 13.8 billion years ago) The Unnamed Overdeity begins creating the multiverse. He begins with realms of primordial fire and frozen water. Fire melts ice creating air. The ice cools lava creating earth.The Unnamed Overdeity creates Ptah from primordial clay. He charges Ptah with creating the gods from the rest of the primordial clay. He then creates the higher planes, the lower planes and purgatory. Ptah creates Geb and Nut who create the plane of air and water. The four elemental planes are established and the unnamed overdeity mixes elements of them with the primordial clay to create the material plane. The Astral and Ethereal Plane are formed as dividers between the worlds. Gaea awakens as a deity that is the incarnation of the material world and Uranus awakens as a deity incarnation of outer space. The two beings mate and begin to create life. Gaea creates the Hecatoncheries which Uranus despises and seals away in the lower planes. Gaea is furious and Uranus leaves her to rule over the stars. Life forms begin to develop slowly into single celled and then multicelled organisms over the next billions of years. THE PRIMORDIAL WORLD: (4.5 billion years ago through 230 million years ago) Aboleths are the first intelligent life forms to naturally arise. Other life forms are no more complicated than prehistoric fish. Illithids arrive from an alternate future and begin genetically engineering the Gith as intelligent life for use as slave labor to rebuild their empire. The Gith are used to wage war against the Aboleths and nearly destroy them. They flee to the Plane of Water. The Gith eventually overthrow the Illithids and nearly exterminate them, driving survivors into hiding in The Underdark. The Gith depart the material plane, coming to reside on the Astral Plane where they become divided into the GithZeri and Githyanki. Life on the material plane continues its slow evolution into gradually more complicated life. The AGE OF DRAGONS: (230 million years ago through 2 million years ago) Linnorms evolve as the first naturally occurring intelligent species and become the masters of the world living long lives and changing little. Dinosaurs are the dominant form of animals. Dragons eventually evolve from them and Linnorms retreat deeper into the world. Bahamut and Tiamat arise as the leaders of the Metallic and Chromatic Dragons. The two war among each other and dragon populations are significantly reduced. Tiamat retreats to the Plane of Fire and Bahamut takes up residence in the Plane of Air. THE DAWN OF MORTALS: (2 million years ago through 160,000 years ago) Humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, goblins, kobolds, orcs, giants, ogres and numerous other intelligent life forms begin to evolve on the material plane. Frost giants appear in Niflheim and Fire Giants appear on the Plane of Fire. Elves are the first to develop modern intelligence and look down upon the others as primitives. They and fey are among the first to learn to wield magic. Humans are among the last to show intelligence but upon reaching modern humans showed great potential to learn and adapt quickly. The deities of non-human races ascend. Lolth and Corellon Larethain go to war. Lolth is defeated and cast down into the underdark. Her people become drow and driders. Angels are created to watch over mortal races with the Seraphim Lucifer as the greatest of all. THE AGE OF PEACE: (160,000 years ago through 9,000 years ago) Little is known about this era other than the fact that Angels and good aligned deities were able to maintain order in the cosmos and on the material plane. Human civilization transitions from hunter-gatherers into early permanent villages. THE WAR IN HEAVEN: (9,000 years ago) A piece of The Far Realms falls into the ordered universe and becomes known as The Abyss. Demons attack all worlds. Lucifer tries to enslave mortals and conscript them into his war against the demons. Lucifer rallies numerous other angels to his cause and goes to war against the other angels. Lucifer is defeated by Michael and he and his followers are cast into the lower planes. There, they become devils and set up Hell. Lucifer dedicates himself to corrupting mortals so that they fall into his clutches where he can torture them into submission and make them his followers. He becomes the greatest incarnation of evil itself to serve the "greater good" of defeating the demons at all costs. Angels, as a result, much spend more time thwarting Lucifer and his devils and cannot watch over mortals as well. THE AGE OF FALSE GODS: (9,000 through 7,628 years ago) Humans have begun to spread across the world and gain the attention of many extraplanar beings such as demons, devils, Efreets, Genies and dragons. These beings would often appear before humans and pretend to be gods to demand their worship and sometimes even sacrifices. The Unnamed Overdeity appears for the first time to humans in his incarnation of The Prophet, taking the form of a great hero who shows them the truth, smashing the false idols and driving away the exploiting outsiders. THE PHARONIC PANTHEON: (7,628 years ago through 4,860 years ago) Ptah completes the creation of the Pharonic Pantheon who rule from Tuat. Humans thrive under their guidance for thousands of years, constructing great cities and monuments. Humans become the most populous mortal race but trade freely with peaceful non-humans. THE FIRST CATACLYSM: (4,860 years ago) Nyarlathotep emerges from The Far Realms and poses in the guise of "The Black Pharaoh" he shares eldritch knowledge with mortal cultists who craft The Necronomicon. With this, the open a portal to the Far Realms and Cthulhu emerges along with a host of lesser entities. Cthulhu lays waste to civilization. The Pharonic Pantheon combines their power to seal Cthulhu in stasis within the city of R'yleh somewhere deep at the bottom of the sea. However, the Pharonic pantheon has lost most of its influence. THE FALSE PHAROAHS: (4,860 years ago through 4,340 years ago) A false Pharoah attempts to enslave other humans and force them to rebuild despite not having the blessings of his gods. He succeeds in rebuilding cities but they are founded on pain and suffering. The Unnamed Overdeity appears for the second time as The Prophet, this time as a sorcerer who visited plagues and curses upon the Pharoah's cities until he released his slaves. The corrupt Pharoah eventually relented and his society crumbles after his people saw that the gods were not with him. The kingdom did not last long in the hands of his descendants. Humans begin wandering in search of new lands. THE AGE OF VIRTUE AND SIN: (4,340 years ago through 3,919 years ago) Although they have no deities at this time, humans are now very aware of the Unnamed Overdeity. They live simple and virtuous lives trying to secture a place in the higher planes. During this time, they pen the Book of Exalted Deeds as a guide to virtuous living. However, eventually human kings and sages also began to research the lower planes. What started as trying to determine what was considered sin in order to avoid it turned into a macabre fascination. Demon and devil cults formed among the supposed holy lands and cultists created the Book of Vile Darkness which contained rituals for summoning demons and devils. Angels eventually had to intervene to prevent demons and devils from gaining too much of a foothold, destroying kingdoms that had been utterly lost. The overdeity decided at this time that humans required the guidance of gods once more. THE RISE OF THE TITANS: (3,919 years ago through 3,369 years ago) The first generation of Olympian deities arises with their leader Cronus and his Titan brethren being gifted a sickle by Gaea with which he can steal his father's power. Uranus returns to the material plane sensing a great disturbance caused by Cthulhu's appearance. He finds Cronus ready to challenge him, the two battle and Cronus steals Uranus' power and exiles him. He refuses to free the Hecatoncheries and instead rules over humans from Mount Olympus for centuries. Cronus was considered a fair ruler and this was a period of prosperity for humans who made great advances in technology, art and philosophy. THE ASCENSION OF ZEUS: (3,569 years ago through 3,215 years ago) Zeus and his brothers and sisters overthrow Cronus after stealing his sickle and using it against him. They free the Hecatoncheries to help them battle for supremacy but after Zeus absorbs Cronus' power he betrays them and seals them and the now powerless Titans back in Tartarus. He then hurls the sickle into the depths of space. The Olympian Pantheon rules for several more centuries from Olympus but refuse the souls of their mortal followers to join them there. These instead go to Hades where Zeus' older brother, who he cheated out of ruling the Pantheon, commands power. The Olympians interfere regularly in the lives of mortals as they see fit. Still, human culture continues to advance under the Olympians and a massive empire is formed that spans much of the known world. THE EMPIRE OF HUMANITY: (3,215 years ago through 2,626 years ago) During this time, the Olympians become drunk on power and punish the worship of any deities but themselves by forcing their human worshipers to fight to the death in gladiatorial arenas for their amusement. Human emperors become corrupt, decadent and exploitative. The Prophet appears again to assist the poor and destitute suffering under the rule of the corrupt emperors. He attempts to appeal to the human emperor and priests of these gods to turn away from their sins and promote virtuous living. For this, he is executed. This prompts mortals to begin turning away from the Olympians and following the teachings of The Prophet. The sacrifice of The Prophet and fear of losing power causes the Olympian Pantheon to realize the error of their ways. The corrupt emperor is assassinated by the gods' will. Reforms occur in their empire and in the faiths. It appears as though a new golden age is about to begin. THE FALL OF OLYMPUS AND THE DARK AGE: (2,626 years ago through 1,350 years ago) Gaea causes a tremendously powerful monster, Typhon, to emerge in Tartarus and seek revenge on Zeus for his betrayal. Typon attacks the material plane and lays waste to the cities of the Olympian Pantheon. The Gods combine their power to seal the beast away again but have lost most of their mortal worshipers and influence. Only Hades maintains his power in the lower planes. The remnants of the empire fall to tribes of barbarians. The world then experiences a dark age. Much knowledge and culture is lost and humans live in farming villages and small kingdoms controlled by Kings with small armies of knights very little real power. Attempts are made to re-unify the empire but all fail THE RISE OF THE ASGARDIANS: (1,350 years ago through 1,000 years ago) The Asgardians emerge triumphant in their battles against their rivals the frost and fire giants and descend to the material plane to guide humanity. Odin gives them knowledge and Thor makes them into great warriors to reclaim the world. Humanity does not become a decadent empire but a series of neighboring kingdoms each with their own rulers and laws. This becomes easier to manage and less prone to corruption. Humanity once again experiences a golden age. However, Loki the trickster god conspires to bring an end to this time of prosperity. He has several monstrous children including Fenrir and Jormundanger and arranges for the death of Balder. Loki and his children are cast out and imprisoned in Niflheim. RAGNAROK AND THE ICE AGE:(1,000 years ago through Present Day) Loki and his children escape from Niflheim and attack Asgard with armies of fire and frost giants. The gods and the reincarnated souls of mortal heroes do battle with these armies on the Material Plane. Several gods die and Loki, with his dying breath, curses the world to an ice age. Most civilizations are lost and many humans revert to hunter-gatherers to survive. Some even devolve back into cavemen. Knowledge fades but some stories are kept alive in oral traditions. Many animal species such as dinosaurs which relied on a warm world die out entirely. THE THAW (Present Day) Loki's curse has at last began to lose its hold. As the ice melts and the world warms, humans are again able to establish settlements. They begin to explore the old world where they find ruins of past civilizations and lost knowledge.